{"id":527,"date":"2014-06-04T23:16:32","date_gmt":"2014-06-04T23:16:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/?p=527"},"modified":"2015-04-07T10:43:15","modified_gmt":"2015-04-07T17:43:15","slug":"sea-star-disease-epidemic-surges-oregon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/2014\/06\/sea-star-disease-epidemic-surges-oregon\/","title":{"rendered":"Sea star disease epidemic surges in Oregon"},"content":{"rendered":"

The incidence of sea star wasting syndrome has exploded along the Oregon Coast and created an epidemic of historic magnitude, one that threatens to decimate the entire population of purple ochre sea stars.\u00a0<\/em>Prior to this, Oregon had been the only part of the West coast that had been largely spared this devastating disease.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
\"Healthy

Healthy sea stars<\/p><\/div>\n

The ochre sea star<\/a>, which is the species most heavily affected by the disease in the intertidal zone, may be headed toward localized extinction in Oregon, according to researchers at OSU who have been monitoring the outbreak. As a \u201ckeystone\u201d predator, its loss could disrupt the entire marine intertidal ecosystem.<\/p>\n

Researchers say this is the first time that die-offs of sea stars, more commonly known as starfish, have ever been identified at one time along such a wide expanse of the West coast,<\/p>\n

And the sudden increase in Oregon has been extraordinary.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an unprecedented event,\u201d said\u00a0Bruce Menge<\/a>, the Wayne and Gladys Valley Professor of Marine Biology in the College of Science.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve never seen anything of this magnitude before.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cWe have no clue what\u2019s causing this epidemic, how severe the damage might be or how long that damage might last,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s very serious. Some of the sea stars most heavily affected are keystone predators that influence the whole diversity of life in the intertidal zone.\u201d<\/p>\n

The best information is from the intertidal zone, which is easier to access for monitoring. In this area, less than 1 percent of the ochre sea stars in Oregon were affected in April, and only slightly more than that by mid-May.<\/p>\n

Today, an estimated 30-50% of the Oregon populations of this sea star species in the intertidal zone have the disease. The highest losses are at Fogarty Creek, where about 60% are affected. Researchers project that the epidemic will intensify and, at some sites, nearly 100% of the ochre sea stars could die.<\/p>\n

Colleagues from the Oregon Coast Aquarium\u00a0are monitoring subtidal sites in Yaquina Bay<\/a>, where wasting was first observed in April.<\/p>\n

Altogether, mortality has been documented in 10 species of sea stars on the West Coast. No definitive cause has yet been identified, although it may be bacterial or viral pathogens. Researchers around the nation are working on the issue.<\/p>\n

Sea star wasting syndrome is a traumatic process in which, over the course of a week or less, the\u00a0sea stars begin to lose legs<\/a>, disintegrate, ultimately die and rot. They sometimes physically tear their bodies apart. Various epidemics of the syndrome have been observed in the past, but none of this extent or severity.<\/p>\n

In the past, some of the outbreaks were associated with warm-water conditions during El Nino events, but currently the water temperatures in Oregon \u201care only at the high end of a normal range,\u201d Menge said.<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Daily Barometer<\/a> also covered this story recently.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An estimated 30-50% of the Oregon sea star populations in the intertidal zone have the disease.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6216,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1507,641038,642659,523],"tags":[1729,650784],"class_list":["post-527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faculty-and-staff","category-ib","category-marine-studies","category-research","tag-healthy-planet","tag-school-of-life-sciences"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6vHeb-8v","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4320,"url":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/2016\/06\/marine-biologist-discovers-starfish-baby-boom\/","url_meta":{"origin":527,"position":0},"title":"Marine Biologist discovers starfish baby boom","author":"nayaks","date":"June 21, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Bruce Menge and his team of researchers have reported on the appearance of an unprecedented number of juvenile sea stars off the Oregon coast over the past several months.","rel":"","context":"In "Faculty and Staff"","block_context":{"text":"Faculty and Staff","link":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/category\/people\/faculty-and-staff\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1512,"url":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/2015\/05\/new-ale-to-help-research-on-sea-star-wasting-disease\/","url_meta":{"origin":527,"position":1},"title":"New ale supports research on sea star wasting disease","author":"nayaks","date":"May 27, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"In collaboration with Oregon State University and PISCO, Rogue Ales and Spirits has released the Wasted Sea Star Purple Ale.","rel":"","context":"In "Integrative 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